STURGIS, SD — Dannette Giltz was certain she had kidney stones when, doubled over with excruciating pain, she went to an urgent care center in Sturgis earlier this month. She’d had the knife-like stabbing pain of kidney stones before. That had to be it. No, doctors told her. She was 38 weeks pregnant and in labor — a big surprise since she and Austin, her husband of 12 years, had considered their family complete with two children, a boy and a girl.
Not only was Dannette in labor, the doctors she consulted on Aug. 10 told her she was going to have twins. And she needed to get to a hospital in Spearfish, about 20 miles away, as soon as possible. From there, doctors sent her by ambulance to Rapid City, another 50 miles away, for a Caesarian section birth.
There, after shuttling between medical facilities, the family got another surprise.
As Dannette told the story to news station KOTA, Austin was holding the two babies when doctors asked for another blanket.
“It was quiet; we thought they were done,” she said. “He’s over there, kind of like rocking; like, thinking of the names and then she’s like, ‘We’ll we need another blanket,’ and his reaction is like, ‘Excuse me, put it back. No, I was told I have twins, I’m not doing triplets.’ She’s like, ‘No, there’s three babies in here, there’s triplets.’ “
Dannette wrote on Facebook that she never had morning sickness in the early weeks of her pregnancy, nor did she feel the triplets moving around in her womb.
“You don’t ever see triplets being conceived naturally, let alone going 34 weeks without knowing,” she said, adding that her friends and family were as dumbfounded by the triplets as she and Austin.
“I’m like, ‘We’re still in shock; trust me, we know what you mean,’ ” she said. “Like, I go to the doctor’s thinking I’ll have surgery for kidney stones and end up going into labor with a C-section that night. It’s crazy.”
The babies, two girls and a boy, were small, but not dangerously so, and healthy. Each weighed about 4 pounds. Named Gypsy, Nikki and Blaze, they’re all home now.
The Giltzes weren’t prepared for the size of their family to almost double overnight, but a friend set up a fundraiser on Facebook to help them out.
“It’s amazing in a small town how many people will come together for stuff that’s not expected,” Dannette told KOTA.
Perhaps least surprised of all is 10-year-old Ronnie, who told the news station that he once wished on a shooting star for a baby brother and two little sisters.
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“I knew this day was always going to come,” he said.